Ansaru

Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Lands (Ansaru)
Participant in the Boko Haram insurgency
Motto: “Jihad Fi Sabilillah” (English: "Struggle for the cause of Allah")
Active	2012–present
Ideology	Sharia law Islamic fundamentalism khawarij
Leaders	Khalid al-Barnawi (POW) Abu Jafa’ar (Spokesman)
Area of operations	Northern Nigeria
Part of	Al-Qaeda(covertly from 2013)
Originated as	Boko Haram
Allies	Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Séléka
Opponents	Nigeria
Battles and wars	Boko Haram insurgency

Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Lands (Arabic: جماعة أنصار المسلمين في بلاد السودان‎‎ Jamāʿatu Anṣāril Muslimīna fī Bilādis Sūdān), better known as Ansaru or Al Qaeda in the Lands Beyond the Sahel, is an Islamist jihadist militant organisation based in the northeast of Nigeria. It is a splinter group of the larger Boko Haram organisation, founded in January 2012, and reportedly has more of an international focus than the latter. As of 2013, the group stopped addressing itself as Al Qaeda in the lands beyond the Sahel, and changed its name to Ansaru.

In the group's first statement, released on the Internet in January 2012, its leader, Abu Usmatul al-Ansari (nom de guerre of Khalid al-Barnawi) described Boko Haram actions as "inhuman to the Muslim Ummah". Ansari also praised the Sokoto Caliphate and its founder, Usman dan Fodio. In March 2012,the group released a statement, naming itself Al Qaeda in the Lands Beyond the Sahel, claiming responsibility for the murder of a Italian tourist. In another Internet video released by the group in June 2012, al-Ansari claimed that the group would not kill innocent non-Muslims or security officials, except in "self defense" and that the group would defend the interests of Islam and Muslims not just in Nigeria but the whole of Africa. Unlike Boko Haram, which is based in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, Ansaru operates in and around Kano State in north-central Nigeria, the heartland of the Hausa-Fulani peoples.

The organisation's motto is “Jihad Fi Sabilillah”, meaning "struggle for the cause of Allah".

The group reportedly coordinates its operations with the northern Mali-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. Ansaru is designated as a proscribed terrorist organization by New Zealand and the UK Home Office.